One World Canada - Bruce L. Taylor

Development Studies - Course Outline

Introduction

Welcome to Development Studies. This course will offer students the opportunity to experience an international, interdisciplinary and comprehensive overview of the major issues of development theory and practice and the writings of forefront scholars from both the so-called “South” and the “North.”

The topics are divided into ten principle sections, dealing respectively with: the nature of development and development studies; theories and strategies of development; rural development; industrialization and employment; urbanization; the environment; gender, population and development; health and education; the political economy of violence and insecurity; and agents of development such as the World Bank and the United Nations. The course thus covers all important areas, from globalization to refugees, gender issues to development theory, colonial to post-colonial strategies of development, neo-liberalism, structural adjustment and poverty reduction strategies, non-governmental organizations, alternative forms of development, and many more.

Course Texts and Readings

Desai, Vandana & Potter, Robert B. 2002. The Companion to Development Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.

Development Studies Course Reader of over 30 journal articles on the above topics.

Development Studies Bibliography of over 100 journal articles on the below topics:

human rights	ethics and morality
liberty	crimes of war and peace
alienated labour	feminist scholarship
cultural universals	social justice
religion	conflict and war
crisis decision-making	global inequalities
politics of class	politics of cultural pluralism
revolution	clash of civilizations?
political liberalization/democratization	global HIV-AIDS crisis
politics of (natural?) disasters	gender, politics and development
impacts and legacies of colonialism	economic policy choices
culture, tribalism and ethnicity	music and politics
politics of cultural pluralism	economic development challenges
class and income	arts and politics
civil and military governance	theories of democratic transition
ideology, economics and development	African liberation ideologies
urban bias and regional inequality	politics of identities
globalization and inequality	indomitable spirit
urban poverty and the informal economy
politics of terrorism and counterterrorism
the role of the military in (and out of) politics
reforming international financial institutions
approaches to the study of Third World politics
political determinants of economic inequality
global migration, especially from South to North
nationalism, national liberation and decolonization
challenges of independence, statebuilding and regime consolidation

Course Requirements

	The course consists of seven graded components.	Percent
1.	Oral, current development issues report	5
2.	Group seminar presentation	20
3.	Research paper: 10-12 pages of body; notes and bibliography not included. The Lecturer will provide students with a “Guide To Writing a Political Science Essay.”	30
4.	Field trip report	10
5.	Field project	20
6.	Mid-term, take-home exam, due in Week 10’s class	10
7.	Participation: based on quantity, not quality, so as to encourage students to ask questions, make comments, and challenge other students and the lecturer.	5
	Total	100

Course Readings

Week 1: The Nature of Development and Development Studies

Topics

• The Third World, developing countries, the South, poor countries, 1-7.
• Current trends and future options in development studies, 7-12.
• The impasse in development studies, 12-16.
• Post-development, 16-20.
• The collapse of state socialism in the socialist Third World, 20-26.
• The Asian crisis, 27-32.
• The measurement of poverty, 32-37.
• Poverty in global terms, 37-41.
• Development as economic growth, 41-44.
• Development as improving human welfare and human rights, 45-49.
• Participatory development, 49-54.
• Anthropologists and development, 54-58.

Weeks 2 and 3: Theories and Strategies of Development

Topic

• Theories, strategies and ideologies of development, 59-65.
• Enlightenment and the era of modernity, 65-70.
• Smith, Ricardo and the world marketplace, 70-74.
• Dualistic and unilinear concepts of development, 75-80.
• Transport and development, 80-86.
• Neo-liberalism, structural adjustment and poverty reduction strategies, 86-92.
• The Latin-American structuralists, 92-96.
• Classical dependency theories: from ECLA to Andre Gunder Frank, 97-101.
• The New World Group of dependency scholars: reflections on a Caribbean avant-garde movement, 102-107.
• World-systems theory: centres, peripheries and semi-peripheries, 107-112.
• Agropolitan and bottom-up development, 112-116.
• Community participation in development, 117-121.
• Postmodernism and development, 121-127.
• Postcolonialism, 127-131.
• Responsibility to distant others, 131-134.
• The changing role of the state in development, 135-139.
• Social capital in development, 139-143.

Week 4: Rural Development

topic

• Rural poverty, 145-151.
• Rural livelihoods, 151-155.
• The Green Revolution, 155-159.
• Food security, 159-165.
• Rural co-operatives, 165-170.
• Regenerating agriculture, 170-175.
• Development and the intermediate classes, with special reference to India, 175-179.

Week 5: Industrialization and Employment

topic

• Global shift: industrialization and development, 181-186.
• The new international division of labour, 186-191.
• Global convergence, divergence and development, 192-196.
• Trade and industrial policy in developing countries, 196-201.
• Export processing and free trade zones, 201-206.
• The informal sector and employment, 206-215
• Child labour, 215-219.
• Technology, knowledge and development, 219-224.
• The “resource curse” in developing countries, 224-229.
• Energy and development, 230-236.
• Tourism and development, 236-240.

Week 6: Urbanization

topic

• Urbanization in developing countries, 241-247.
• World cities and development, 247-252.
• Prosperity or poverty? Wealth, inequality and deprivation in urban areas, 253-257.
• Housing the urban poor, 257-262.
• Urbanization and environment in the Third World, 262-267.
• Urban agriculture, 268-272.

Week 7: Environment

topic

• Sustainable development, 273-278.
• Climate, environment and development, 278-283.
• The Rio Earth Summit, 284-289.
• Local Agenda 21 and the Third World, 289-293.
• The Brown Environmental Agenda, 294-298.
• Vulnerability and disasters, 298-305.
• Savannas and development, 305-310.
• Tropical moist forests and development, 310-317.

Week 8: Gender, Population and Development

topic

• WID, GAD and WAD, 319-325.
• Women and the state, 325-329.
• Gender, families and households, 329-334.
• Feminism and feminist issues in the South, 334-338.
• Gender and empowerment: new thoughts, new approaches, 338-342.
• Women in the global economy, 342-346.
• Gender and structural adjustment, 346-352.
• Gender, technology and livelihoods, 352-356.
• Women and political representation, 356-360.
• Population trends in developing countries, 360-367.
• Sexual and reproductive rights, 367-371.
• Indigenous fertility control, 372-377.
• China’s single child family policy, 377-380.

Week 9: Health and Education

topic

• Malnutrition and nutrition policies in developing countries, 381-387.
• Quality of maternal healthcare and development, 387-391.
• The social and economic impact of HIV-AIDS on development, 391-395.
• Managing health and disease in developing countries, 396-400.
• Children’s work and schooling: a review of the debates, 400-405.
• Young people, education and development, 405-409.
• Adult literacy and development, 409-414.
• How pedagogical changes can contribute to the quality of education, 414-418.
• Management challenges in achieving education for all: South Asian perspectives, 419-424.

Week 10: Field Trip. Take-home, mid-term exam due in class.

Week 11: Political Economy of Violence and Insecurity

topic

• Women, children and violence, 425-432.
• War and famine, 432-436.
• Refugees, 436-440.
• War and development, 440-444.
• Complex emergencies and development, 444-448.
• Peace-building partnerships and human security, 449-453.
• Risks analysis and reduction of involuntary resettlement: a theoretical and operational model, 453-459.
• Ethnicity and development, 459-461.
• Arms control and disarmament in the context of developing countries, 462-466.
• The role of the United Nations in developing countries, 466-470.

Weeks 12 and 13: Agents of Development. Research paper due.

topic

• Foreign aid in a changing world, 471-477.
• Third World debt, 477-480.
• Aid conditionality, 480-484.
• The emergence of the governance agenda: sovereignty, neo-liberal bias, and the politics of international development, 485-489.
• Strengthening civil society in developing countries, 489-495.
• Role of non-governmental agencies (NGOs), 495-499.
• The World Bank and NGOs, 499-504.
• NGOs and the state, 504-508.
• NGDO-donor relationships: the use and abuse of partnership, 508-514.
• The role of the Northern development NGO (Christian Aid), 514-519.
• Non-governmental organizations: questions of performance and accountability, 519-523.
• Monitoring and evaluating NGO achievements, 523-528.The relevance of strategic planning for UK aid agencies, 528-534.
• Challenges for NGOs, 534-538.

Week 14: Guest Speaker and/or Field Trip

© One World Canada, Bruce L. Taylor, 2007